Here's the list for April by date. Since this is the first month there are a lot of new recipes and not as much double up and premade stuff as there will be as time goes by. My goal is to help you learn to plan in a way that makes sense for your family and helps you find a little extra free time or free brain space. I have found that the first two months of really planning out my meals has taken a big part of my daily worry out of the way. “What’s for dinner?” is a question with an answer…one that I am already pretty much ready to make. Obviously you can and should adapt these recipes to what your family will actually eat and generally prefers. I have a heavy emphasis on crockpot and casserole type dishes this month because I want to teach you how many different types of food can actually be made successfully these ways and any casserole (almost) is a great recipe to double up and freeze one of. Also, if you have a family with smaller kids or a dinner with fewer eaters…you can half a single casserole.

When we make Mexican or regular lasagna I generally cut half of it out into single serving portions, wrap those in tinfoil and freeze them, three to a pack in gallon freezer bags. They become the perfect heat up and eat dinner for late nights at the office, those times when everyone is eating at a different time or when you find that you are the only one home. These onsies-twosies servings are also good for “fend for yourself” night. (Just be sure to label the ziplock and put the date – tip…write it on an index card, with the reheating instructions and tuck that in the ziplock…save those cards for the next batch)

The way to make this easiest is to make a few rules that work for you. I created Taco Tuesday because everyone in my house will eat some iteration of tacos, the prep isn’t complicated and you have ammunition for the “but I wanna eat [something else] argument since everyone knows it’s Taco Tuesday or Pizza Thursday or Pasta Friday…whatever works for you and your family.

The next step to this planner is to make it easy by making one day a pasta day, one day a chicken day, one day a take-out/leftover day, etc. Here’s an example:

Sunday/Rotating – Sit Down Meal

Monday/Chicken/Pork

Tuesday/Taco Tuesday

Wednesday/Pasta/Salad/Soup

Thursday/Crockpot/Pizza

Friday/Pasta/Sandwiches

Saturday/Beef/Chicken/Leftovers

Here’s the list of April Meals with some ideas and explanations. For those of you who use Pinterest I have made a board for April 2014 with many of the recipes. I have also linked most of the recipes for the menu items listed below, just click on the name. 1. Taco Tuesday – Taco Bar (let the whole family build their own dinner) ground beef 2. Grilled Cheese w/Crudite and fries – think outside the box – make plan old cheddar melts if that’s all you have time for but adding some sandwich meats, other cheeses and condiments in you grilled cheese makes it even more of a meal…and still very easy. 3. Chicken Alfredo Pizza – Toss together an easy salad while the pizza is baking. 4. Spaghetti & Meatballs with salad and garlic cheese bread (Buy a crusty sourdough loaf at the market, slice it in half, melt butter, add garlic salt and parmesan cheese and pour it along the two halves. Bake on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil or parchment paper for 10-12 minutes. Easy, yummy. Add a passable plate with crudités and ranch dip to the table and call it good. 5. Chicken Enchiladas (double the recipe, freeze one for later) Also crockpot the Carnitas for Tuesday’s dinner – divvy it up into two meals’ worth and bag and freeze separately. Saturday’s are busy, these two kitchen projects won’t take you more than an hour and will get you set for tonight and for Tuesday. 6. Foolproof Dry Rubbed Oven Ribs w/Rice Pilaf and potato salad. This is an all day cooking meal…the smell of it should get everyone excited for dinner and encourage even your tweens and teens to come to the table on time. 7. Chicken with Tomatoes and Artichokes. This recipe is so easy and so good. Serve with your family’s favorite side dish – rice or pasta, keep it simple. 8. Taco Tuesday – Carnitas (the meat you cooked and froze on Saturday) 9. Quick Skillet Chicken & Macaroni Parmesan with salad. Easy but you will feel like you actually cooked dinner. 10. Slow Cooker Beef Broccoli w/rice and pot stickers. The beef will cook all day. Stick the rice cooker on and toss in frozen broccoli when you get home. Dinner will be ready before the kids are even done with their homework. 11. Sloppy Toms (sloppy joes made with ground turkey, cook double the turkey, set half aside before adding sloppy joe sauce, freeze for Taco Tuesday) serve with steamed veggies. 12. Leftovers, takeout or a freezer meal – use up what’s left over from the week, pull something out of the freezer or order from your favorite takeout place. 13. Meatlove (my four year old’s name for meatloaf) with Mashed Potatoes (make two, freeze one). Comfort food, easy and so delicious. This is a nice way to slow things down and treat yourself as well as the family. 14. Sriracha Chicken w/Four Cheese Ricearoni (shred leftover chicken for Wednesday’s pizza) This isn’t as spicy as it sounds…but it can be. It’s slightly sweet. Don’t let the large number of ingredients stop you with this recipe. You only need two measuring spoons and it takes longer to take the jars out of the fridge and pantry than to get it set up and crocking. 15. Taco Tuesday – Chicken (use last night’s chicken) 16. Ravioli with your family’s favorite sauce (use packaged ones – fresh, frozen, whatever you like, this one is easy, just be sure there is meat in the sauce or the pasta.) Add a salad or fresh veggies to the table as well. 17. World’s Easiest Pulled Pork Sandwiches (make great leftovers, too). 18. Grilled Cheese with Tomato Soup/Leftovers 19. Mexican Lasagna (double the taco meat and freeze half for Tuesday’s taco bar) 20. Slow Cooker Coq au Vin (easy and delicious) 21. Easter – follow your own family’s traditions or menus 22. Taco Tuesday (use taco meat made on Friday) 23. Tomato Mac & Cheese with salad – this is so yummy and so easy and not as runny as boxed mac. 24. Three Packet Roast Beef with mashed potatoes. Use instant mashed potatoes or make your own, follow whatever works for you and your family. We love the instant mashed potatoes from Costco that have pretty much only “real” ingredients. 25. Baked Pasta with Spinach & Sausage 26. Chicken Quesadillas – leave the chicken off of the picky eater’s quesadilla, add black beans to the ones who like them. Bake them on a cookie sheet instead of making them on the stove and get them all done at once. 27. BBQ! Or Hickory Smoked Slow Cooker Brisket 28. Easy Bake Honey Mustard Chicken. Serve with garlic roasted red potatoes. 29. Taco Tuesday – ground beef or turkey 30. Broccoli Cheese Soup or Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. Use canned soup, soup from the deli or make your own (see the recipe) – whatever works for you and your family. My goal here isn’t to tell you what you SHOULD be eating or shouldn’t be eating. I am just sharing the tips and hints that I have learned that work for my family and I think might help all of you find a little more peace of mind when trying to get dinner on the table in the midst of everything else going on in your days. Cheers, Margot

So, well into the second week of this four week plan and for the most part it's gone as scheduled. I notice myself collecting a different sort of recipe now and I find myself thinking of dinner four weeks from today when before I was challenged to figure out what was for dinner tonight.Here are the top ten takeaways from our first two weeks:(1) Keep your recipes in one location online and one offline (I have them pinned on Pinterest and printed out in a paper clipped stack). I can refer to the pinned recipes when at the store and make notes on the printed out ones. <---this is important for fine tuning and adapting to your family's palette.(2) Buy your meat in "bulk." I bought six pounds of ground beef when it was on sale, I bought the nine million chicken breasts packet at Costco and I even stocked up on pork loins. Keep that week's portions in the fridge, freeze the rest divied up in single meal portions. (3) Double up recipes that will freeze well. You will be glad to have these staples in your freezer on days when you lack inspiration or time to cook.(4) Set a few easy, night specific dinner traditions. We do taco/burrito bar every Tuesday, Breakfast for Dinner every other Wednesday and pizza every Thursday. Also, schedule one night a week or every ten days for eating up the leftovers of the past few days. This is especially good on days when everyone will be eating at a different time or when you've over cooked for a few days.(5)When your kids complain (and they will, they are kids) about what's for dinner turn it into a teachable moment. Have them look through cookbooks or over your monthly dinner plan and let them pick out what dinner will be one night. My four year old was the inspiration for taco/burrito Tuesdays.(6) Make a pantry staples list so you don't have to run to the store for an extra can of Rotel or corn muffin mix. Or at least you won't have to run to the store for onsies-twosies quite so often.(7) Do one extra food prep activity each week. Last week I browned three pounds of hamburger with italian seasoning and garlic salt, I froze that in three separate one pound bags. Now I have handy read to defrost meat for Taco Tuesdays, last minute Sloppy Joes or to toss into a Sheperds Pie. This weekend I will make a triple batch of muffins, freezing most of them so I have them to dole out on busy school mornings.(8) Find a few food blogs, recipe sites or Pinterest boards that really resonate with you and visit those once a month or more to get new ideas.(9) Pick five or six of your families favorite dinners and add them to your rotation regularly, it's okay to repeat every couple weeks if it's something you know they will all eat.(10) Stick to the plan, be flexible but if you stick to it at least 5 nights of the week you will soon grow to appreciate how much easier it is to already know what is for dinner when you wake up in the morning. If the crockpot needs prepping you can do that before you head out the door or if it's a casserole - like a lasagna - prep it in the morning, stick it in the fridge, bake it when you walk in the door after school/work. Really, this takes so much pressure off of you, you will be very glad you did it.

I spent three hours this morning collecting and reflecting on recipes to put on the monthly meal planner. Since we have a blended family, some days we have two kids, some days we have three kids, twice a month we have two dinners in a row with five kids and three nights every other week we have no kids. This menu reflects all of those permutations.

This particular set of weeks includes recipes from my best friend, a few tried and true that I found on Pinterest, one of the recipes that's been in my repertoire for the longest amount of time and a few easy stand-bys. All of these are recipes that can be made while juggling kids, work, carpool, errands, etc. Many of them are on my Family Approved Pinterest board.When you are planning your own meal plans, set a few repeating meals to make it easy on yourself. We have Taco/Burrito Bar Tuesday every other week, pizza of some sort every Thursday, and chicken every Monday, for example.Ask your friends for their favorite go to recipes when you are looking to mix things up a little bit.And do yourself one more favor, double up recipes and freeze one so you have it for a frazzled day.What's for dinner?

The two apps I use the very most to help me manage our family meal planning and food budget are Pinterest and OurGroceries. Pinterest is a great place to find and store recipes that you want to use later. I have a board I call "School Night Dinners" where I pin meals that shouldn't take too long to cook or can be prepped ahead of time and just thrown in the over or crockpot in time for a delicious weeknight dinner.I recently added another board called "Tried and True" where I move recipes once we have actually had them. On that board I write out any changes I may have made to the original recipe or suggestions to try the next time.The OurGroceries list app is on both my phone and my partner's. It is a running list of items needed at the store. If one of us stops at the store the list is right in front of them and items are easily ticked off to keep the other partner from accidentally buying the same thing at the store later in the day. We have multiple lists including one called Pantry Staples where we can check to see if there is still a particular spice in the cabinet or a can of cream of mushroom soup still hiding in the pantry before buying it again at the store. I have three bottles of vanilla and two boxes of cornstarch, all unopened, in my kitchen from before I added this list to the group.

I am possibly, slightly obsessive about planning meals. I am alternately completely reactive and impulsive about meals. Here's the deal, as the divorced mother of three and part-time stand in mom to two of my partner's children I have to come up with clever ideas to feed either 1, 2, 4, 5 or 7 people...daily. Holidays and birthdays are a big deal for me because I remember the traditions and breaks from tradition of my own childhood. I want to be sure that these kids know how important they are to me and that they are eating well every day. So I vowed to pack lunches for my kids for as long as they will take them to school. Even on the most hectic, screwed-up-plans kind of morning I make a point of covering all the basics in their Little Lunches and send them off knowing that when they open it up later in the day a part of home and mom is in that box.Today my best friend and I sat across from each other at her dinner table for three hours while she mapped out her family's exact meals for the next two weeks. I had been feeling pretty good that with a well stocked pantry and a general plan - chicken on Wednesdays and Saturdays, pizza on Thursdays, pork on Tuesday, pasta on Mondays, left overs on Fridays and football food on Sunday I had my month planned out. There is something very reassuring about having some structure to the family table when our day in and day out life feels like a constant patchwork of juggling priorities and schedules.What do you do to plan your family's meals?